Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore is highly critical of the green organisation's stance on aquaculture. (Photo: Greenspirit Strategies/Stock File)

Greenpeace founder defends shrimp, salmon farming

CANADA
Thursday, November 05, 2009, 02:40 (GMT + 9)

One of the founders and long-time leaders of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore is voicing a stinging attack on environmentalist groups for their opposition towards salmon and shrimp aquaculture.

“Greenpeace opposes the farming of salmon, shrimp, and other species even though this takes pressure off wild stocks, provides employment farming the sea, and produces some of the healthiest foods at affordable prices,” Moore explains to FIS.com.

On the other hand, Greenpeace says that “Rapid development and expansion of intensive aquaculture for species such as salmon and shrimp has, for example, resulted in widespread degradation of the environment and the displacement of coastal fishing and farming communities.

Moore was an active figure in Greenpeace from 1971 to 1986, serving as president of the Greenpeace Foundation in Vancouver. He is now chairman and chief scientist at Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. 

“Since I left Greenpeace in 1986, partly over their decision to "ban chlorine worldwide," they have adopted a number of policies that I believe are not in the best interests of the environment or humanity,” Moore says. 

Moore founded his own salmon farming company, Quatsino Seafarms Ltd, at Winter Harbour. At this time, he also served as president of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) from 1986 to 1989.

In a statement on Moore, Greenpeace said that “Patrick Moore often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental “expert” or even an “environmentalist,” while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance.”

One of the “anti-environmental opinions” raised in the statement was that of salmon farming.

Despite opposition from the organisation he was once a member of, Moore sticks to his guns: “The campaign against salmon farming, based on erroneous and exaggerated claims of environmental damage and chemical contamination, scares us into avoiding one of the most nutritious, heart-friendly foods available. Salmon farming takes pressure off wild stocks, yet activists tell us to eat only wild fish. Is this how we save them, by eating more?” he wrote in the Miami Herald.

In light of the recent outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) in Chile, some practices, such as the use of antibiotics in salmon farming, have come under attack by environmental groups.

Moore has said that the amount of antibiotics used in salmon farming do not compare to that of more traditional livestock.

“Whereas these livestock are on low-dose antibiotics for more than 50 per cent of their lives, only 3 per cent of salmon feed is medicated. Many salmon farms are now completely antibiotic-free and some are able to qualify for "organic" status.”

Responding to claims of harmful waste being produced by salmon farming, Moore said that “Activists compare salmon farms to cities of 500,000 people dumping their raw sewage into the environment. The primary reason for concern about untreated human waste is disease transfer, not the waste itself. Once human waste is treated and sterilised it is a perfectly good fertiliser, and fish waste is no different except that there are no diseases that can be transmitted from fish to people.”

In the case of shrimp farming, it is, for him, a much more ethical issue. In an interview with The Competitive Enterprise Institute, he comments: “First World environmental activists are campaigning against shrimp farming in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people depend upon it for their livelihood.”

Due to the vast negative coverage that aquaculture has received in the world press, Moore believes that he should provide a positive vision for aquaculture since  “the negative side already has way too much airtime.”

Related articles:

- Researchers study impact of antimicrobial agents in aquaculture on humans
- Govt encourages organic aquaculture

By Michel Loubet
michelj@fis.com
www.fis.com